The relationship between words and pictures in a picture book is a special one. There have been illustrated texts for centuries. The Book of Kells is an illustrated text. Chap books and comics are as well. While comics are a precursor of the Graphic Novel, picture book texts predominantly rely on a different relationship between image and texts. Deroet points out that "The reading of picture books requires much more than just decoding words, as it involves the reading of the visual images as well. This means that readers of picture books need diverse strategies to be able to code break, make meaning, use texts and analyse texts critically (Luke & Freebody, 1999) across both verbal and visual modes." (Derouet, 2010, p.ii)
Hallberg argues that the picturebook is an "iconotext, an inseparable entity of word and images, which co-operate to convey a message" (Nikolajeva and Scott, 2001, p. 6) Schwarcz calls it a "composite text".
Schwarcz lists the manner in which the picture book relationship between words and pictures create a composite text:
congruency
elaboration
specification
amplification
extension
complementation
alternation
deviation
counterpoint
Nikolajeva and Scott quote Golden who discusses several types of picture and word interaction
the text and pictures are symmetrical (creating a redundancy)
the text depends on pictures for clarification
illustration enhances, elaborates text
the text carries primary narrative, illustration is selective
the illustration carries primary narrative, the text is selective
Issues that need to be considered
The linkage words and images from textless / wordless picture books to pictureless text.
Consonant, symmetrical, complementary
Enhancement and counterpoint (Nikolajeva and Scott, 2001, p. 17)
Words and Pictures:
The relationship between words and pictures in a picture book is a special one. There have been illustrated texts for centuries. The Book of Kells is an illustrated text. Chap books and comics are as well. While comics are a precursor of the Graphic Novel, picture book texts predominantly rely on a different relationship between image and texts. Deroet points out that "The reading of picture books requires much more than just decoding words, as it involves the reading of the visual images as well. This means that readers of picture books need diverse strategies to be able to code break, make meaning, use texts and analyse texts critically (Luke & Freebody, 1999) across both verbal and visual modes." (Derouet, 2010, p.ii)
Hallberg argues that the picturebook is an "iconotext, an inseparable entity of word and images, which co-operate to convey a message" (Nikolajeva and Scott, 2001, p. 6) Schwarcz calls it a "composite text".
Schwarcz lists the manner in which the picture book relationship between words and pictures create a composite text:
Nikolajeva and Scott quote Golden who discusses several types of picture and word interaction
Issues that need to be considered
The linkage words and images from textless / wordless picture books to pictureless text.
Consonant, symmetrical, complementary
Enhancement and counterpoint (Nikolajeva and Scott, 2001, p. 17)
Dual audience